In this 50th post on "The Phantom 2040" television Animation Series from the mid 90's that I had the privilege of working on for almost 3 years, I have posted original sketch concepts for the series I did in 1993.

One of the first orders of business for me to design, was to finish out our promotional booklet for the show, in order to sell it to the networks, and toy company. Many folks do not know is that it is a dual sell simultaneously, in that without a toy line, you will NOT sell the show, and without a show Mattel would not do the toys, so Mattel was an integral part of the project getting the green light.

Above you will find my first draft roughs for a few of the main promotional images done. Once they were approved we had out in-house painters in backgrounds paint them up to my layouts, and our character team did the ink and paint on cels[ Yes Real Cels!] for the finals.

In this weeks second posting for K-19 I am posting some of the 3D logo treatments that we explored for the film in Theatrical Advertising.

After building out the K-19 Russian Nuclear Submarine for the Posters, I did a series of 3D Logos for the Poster Comp Ideas as well. I did about two dozen and I have posted a sampling of what was shown. The fonts were pieced and given to me as an Illustrator file, and I built each one out in 3D with a variety of marine lighting and rusted metal and Iron texturing.

We did go in a direction where I built out the letters out of sub parts and added in some volumetric lighting for an underwater feel,a s well as rivets and bubbles.

A great project and one of my first poster finishes at BLT during my time there.

In this 49th post on "The Phantom 2040" television Animation Series from the mid 90's, I am posting some more of the smaller hand held props that were done for each show.

Part of designing an entire world included all the small gadgets and t items that were key points in the script and were usually a close up shot so a detailed design was needed since we highlighted technology in the series as a general rule.

Above you will see a variety of smaller items including a keypad that mounts to an antique chair for Aunt Heloise to use while she recovered from the Hospital, as well as a few of the Phantoms Power-Cuff props and flashlights.

Even when the product is a small light I had a lot of fun with it I did what we learned in Transportation design and did some complex surfaces with good highlight areas and incorporated some fun shapes in there as well. I always "Enjoyed the little things Rule #26".

When I was first hired at BLT and Associates, they had used a freelance artist to help out with the occasional 3D Logo and the pinnacle of this was the Tomb Raider Logo that was done for them right before I arived. X-Men one was a 2D Logo and predates us both.

They understood 3D as a tool for creating dimensional type, but full 3D illustration was not something they had used yet. When K-19 came in I had a bit of down time and took it upon myself to build the Sub itself, and as it was a unique Submarine normally not seen in film, I custom Modeled one in a day for them. When Clive saw this, he instantly "got" exactly what I do and how to use me, as his first though was I had a frame from the film.

So in the above images you will find the various ways we rendered out the Submarine K-19 as a photographic look, and we did a lot of stylized silhouette versions, with type projected right on the sub itself. I also did the main periscope as we had an international poster that had Harrison Fords face right next to the Periscope and the film shots were too small in resolution, and the angle and lighting was off for printing, and re-touching would take days so I built a 3D Illustration for them as well.

The Sub Illustration finished with the talented Josiah Ludovico in Theatrical Print.

Later this week I will post part two with the various type treatments I did for the film advertising as well.

After my days working at Hearst Animation from 1993-1995, I moved into digital media and I was introduced to SEGA Interactive in Diamond Bar CA. by Rachel Coleman whom I knew when I was at Art Center and she was working there and recommended me for various design jobs.

For this next job, CHAR was the concept for a Baby Dragon and they needed some designs done for the main character, so I did a small series of sketches that you see posted above. It was a small one day job with the above revisions all the way to the final design to present.

I never did another job for Sega after this so I am unsure what happened to the product or design. I know the offices closed here in LA and it took over 6 months to get paid. Not a good client at the time, not sure what they do today as it has been over 15 years since I did this work.

Monday, February 21, 2011

A Concept for a One Sheet with Uma Thuman peeking out behind the sword.

This "Tip" Concept was a pure graphic approach used in a few comp ideas presented.

I built the whole sword for use in banners etc as well.

I also did this cobra head in Gold as a Conceptual piece that I designed and made for a few presentations.

Here is a screenshot of the Cobra Head in 3DSmax, showing the geometry I did. I had a half day to design+Build+Render this, as Theatrical Advertising has very fast turn around deadlines, and you need to be very quick on your feet.

Back in 2003 during my days as the 3D Conceptual Designer over at BLT and Associates, I did a few 3D Illustrations for the new upcoming Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill Part One. We did not have scrap reference from the film so we made it up for the presentation, which happened quite often in Theatrical Advertising.

They needed some Samurai Swords made, as well as a custom Cobra Handle that I designed and built as well for these comps.

This was a fun project as the subject matter is something I have a side interest in as I won a few Swords myself, though still looking for a Hattori Hanzo one.

In this 48th post on "The Phantom 2040" television Animation Series from the mid 90's, I am posting some Fashion Designs I did for some of the characters in the series.

Part of designing an entire world included various fashions for the characters to change into from show to show like you would find in a TV sitcom. Most Animation series have only one or two changes, but we did about 6-8 for each main character for the show so I had to create Fashion Themes that would fit into the "Tall and Thin", "Wrapping and Interlocking" look in this Art Nouveau world of The Phantom.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

An F.B.I. Crest I built using Procedural Dirt Textures using Cebas' Final Render.

A NSA Crest done for Splinter Cell Promotions.

A 3D D.O.D. Crest I built in 3D for a few Poster Ideas at The Cimarron Group.

A 3D KGB Crest "Pin" Done for SALT Comps a few years back.

A C.I.A. Logo Crest I did f that was used on Syriana and Splinter Cell Comps.

A Badge for National Security" .

The final Minority Report Badge Design Used for the Posters.

A custom Icon with blinders and Weapons and Oil in the claws done for Syriana.

BADGES and CRESTS!

Over the last few years I have had to build out quite a few badges or Crests for various Film Posters and Movie Trailers, so I am posting a collection of 3D Modeled Badges and Crests that I have done in the last 6 to 7 years for various clients.

I always enjoy designing a new crest or badge, or interpreting an existing 2D design like a DOD or N.S.A. crest into a dimensional sculpture. My first was the Minority Report Badge that Tom Cruise wore in the film and it was used for the Teaser Poster for the film here.

Most of these badges and crests are available online at TurboSquid, and still sold through my old employer The Cimarron Group in Hollywood CA here.

In this 47th post on, Hearst Animations, "The Phantom 2040", I am posting some of the schematic drawings that I did to help out the animators with the vehicles from the show.

While training at Art Center for Automotive or Transportation Design in the Industrial Design Program, you deal with Architecture and Fabrication as well, so you become very familiar with construction and three dimensional thinking so you can "see" your design from many angles. This skill allows the Industrial Designer to do quick parts drawings, turn arounds and multi-views of any design so others can get a better grasp of the work.

Enjoy!

You can search for more phantom 2040 posts with the Google widget, or you can use the Label tag section on the right side lower area as well to find posts.

BabelFish Universal Translator Widget

About Me

Trained in Transportation Design at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design, I have worked for the past 23 years in every facet of Entertainment Design as Conceptual Designer, up to Design Director. I am currently running my design studio full time out of my home in Littleton, CO.
In the past, I have orchestrated teams as large as 100 on an international level , and as small as a few artists. Art Center gave me the formal training in Industrial Design via sketching and modeling to execute my designs.
The variety within the Entertainment Industry that I have been involved with includes: Television Commercial Set Design, 2D Animation Television Series, Restaurant Design and Illustration, Real Time 3D Interactive Gaming, Online 3D Web interface, CD ROM Magazine Design, Theme Park Attraction Design, and finally ending up in Entertainment based Advertising for Theatrical Films.
I have experience starting up both 2D, and 3D design departments, as well as moving into existing studio infrastructures of operation and working within established systems already in place.